Nigeria Says 11 Boko Haram Members Have Been Killed in Clash

Nigerian military officials say 11 members of a radical Islamic sect have been killed in the northeastern city of Maiduguri.

The officials say the members of the Boko Haram group were killed during a confrontation with military and police personnel late Saturday.

They say the clash began when Boko Haram members threw homemade bombs at a patrol.

The Associated Press quotes a witness, said to be the brother of one of those killed, as saying soldiers chased people in the streets for hours and shot at them.

Boko Haram is seeking stricter and wider application of Islamic law in Nigeria. Nigerian officials accuse the group of killing dozens of police, soldiers, clerics and other authority figures over the past year, mainly in Maiduguri.

Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan recently deployed hundreds of extra troops to the city.

An explosion at a church in Suleija, outside the Nigerian capital, killed at least three people and wounded seven others Sunday.

There was no immediate word on what caused the blast, nor any claim of responsibility.